Port Masterplan 2011

The Ramsgate Port and Royal Harbour Masterplan  2011 is to be discussed by the Cabinet Advisory Group on 26 January 2012. The plan is available to view here.

It is quite a good document which is directing Ramsgate waterfront in the right direction, it draws on some outdated planning policies but makes no reference to the long awaited Core Strategy document which seems to have disappeared into oblivion

The section on the Ramsgate Slipways is rather ambiguous, leaving the door open for some sort of development on the site


More pedestrianisation is recommended, with a rationalisation of car parking to reduce its impact on Military Road, Smeaton's Crosswall, Harbour Parade and Pier Yard. An events space is recommended for Pier Yard.and an improved pedestrian space at the Harbour Street / Harbour Parade road crossing.

Rationalisation of land in the New Port area is a welcome sign for maximising the commercial potential of the non-historical part of the port, including extending commercial opportunities onto the undercliffe area on the landward side of the port.

The document brings together most of the items which have been discussed in a fragmented way about the Port and Royal Harbour and is a good framework for taking forward a viable business model for the area.

It recognises the need for a prestigious building between the Western end of the Royal Harbour and the New Port and hopefully paves the way for something along the lines of the following sketch.

Inclusion of residential accommodation in the harbour is still mentioned but this should be treated with great caution as on many occasions objections about noise etc, by relatively new residents has forced the closure of long established commercial enterprises to the overall detriment to an area. Any residential development should be strictly controlled and only allowed in conjunction with a commercial and related marine use.

BACKDOOR planning.

Getting “the cart before the horse” is becoming an art for Thanet planning policy.

Planning application  F/TH/08/0400                         APPROVED

Industrial development at Manston Business park (China Gateway)  

Planning application OL/TH/11/0910                       BEING CONSIDERED

Land at Haine Road (Eurokent)                       

New application  for change from Industrial to Residential

Planning Application  F/TH/11/0874                       BEING CONSIDERED

Ramsgate Slipways Redevelopment

Ramsgate Port Master-plan                                       DELAYED

Night Flights Consultation                             REPORTED AS IMMINENT

Core Strategy Consultation                                       DELAYED

Approval of Local Development Framework and Airport Expansion

If you are wondering how this list of various planning events affects you, well when finally Thanet District Council get around to approving their Core Strategy Local Development Framework all the major planning decisions will have already been taken

Eurokent can safely be given residential approval now there is industrial space at China Gateway although no go ahead has been agreed by Core Strategy agreement

Leisure development may be let into Ramsgate Harbour before details of the Master plan are available.

Night flight expansion may be approved before the airport expansion itself is approved by the Core Strategy.

"Don’t mix business with pleasure."

Continuing today with the Royal Harbour theme.

A recent planning application for building a bar and restaurant complex on the site of demolished slipways was refused by the council, and quite rightly so. It is not that Ramsgate can afford to turn down such investment but illustrates that a clear vision of the right place and right time is essential to good planning. Ramsgate is a town of two halves, the first half is a safe haven harbour and the second half is a leisure and recreational centre.

The waters between the two halves should not be muddied. Visitors come to Ramsgate  because of the harbour and like to see a working harbour not a “Noddy town” harbour.  Boaters, both recreational and professional use Ramsgate for a safe haven, repair and maintenance facilities. The strange thing about the waterfront at Ramsgate as a town planning exercise, is that it works successfully. The two uses co-exist and are entwined but are not mixed.

By drawing an imaginary line from the Obelisk, along the centre of Harbour Parade, Royal Parade, The Paragon and Westcliff Promenade as far as Westcliff Lift , then designating everything seaward of that line as marine-related usage, inappropriate residential and leisure developments in the harbour can be avoided.

On the landward side of that line there are scores of under-used buildings and sites suitable for a whole range of leisure and recreational uses. In that way both marine and leisure uses can be promoted side by side without one threatening to overrun the other. We must remain vigilant otherwise an inappropriate use may slip through providing a precedent to open up the flood gates

“Let the sun shine in?”

I was going to consider aspects of the Royal Harbour this week but there is never a dull moment on our psy-idyllic isle. Following a mood of doom and gloom, justifiably spread by the shattering news of Pfizer’s exit as a Sandwich filler. Two more dramatic events are now on the cards. Firstly the long awaited proposal for a new Margate Tesco superstore has been unveiled. It is an interesting place to build between the Art Deco style Dreamland cinema and the modernistic slab block which is Arlington House. A 21^st century superstore approach is really the only appropriate way forward amongst such dominating buildings “very little helps”.

Secondly and of more interest to me, is a planning application to put a solar array on 13Ha of green-field site at Ebbsfleet Farm just north of Richborough ex-Power Station. This one is really a difficult one. The site is green-field and for that reason should be opposed, but the field is surrounded by a derelict power station, a sewage works and the new East Kent road to a “soon to be vacant” R&D facility. It covers green-field land in glass but so then do poly-tunnels and Thanet Earth. It is a green technology but provides no jobs other that of construction and maintenance. It provides “free “ electricity when the sun shines but the whole 13 hectares generates only 4 to 5 Mw, when the sun shines, about a similar amount to one offshore wind turbine, when the wind blows.

I found the “pros and cons” of this one difficult until I remembered the derelict wind turbine at the power station site. Would I like to see 13Ha of arable field covered in solar panels or the old wind turbine rebuilt, taking up no further space. The answer is simple I would go for the rebuilt wind turbine any day, especially as there have been some chilly winds blowing in Sandwich lately but not much sunshine.

WRONG place - WRONG time

Tarmac Thanet News

COMING TO A GREENFIELD SITE NEAR YOU?

£10 million government grant applied for, to tarmac two more green fields in Thanet. To be topped up with £500.000 from Infratil. As the heading says WRONG place – WRONG time, remember that other planning blunder called Westwood Cross which succeeded in decimating the old town centres. Well now we have the next one, Parkway Station, one green field for the station and a second for a commuter car park !

Air passengers arriving or departing at KIA and travelling by train have no need for a car park.

Wrong Place

If  Manston airport desperately needs a high speed rail service to facilitate expansion then a KIA terminal station should be built on a  branch line into the airport, adjacent to the massive empty car parks already there. The branch line could then be used for freight services off-peak. This would reduce the need for China Gateway and the flood of lorries known as logistics. If the airport does not have sufficient passengers to support its own station then airport coaches can just as easily go to Minster or Ramsgate Stations, there would be little difference in the journey time

WHAT PARKWAY STATION MEANS FOR YOU ?

Two more green fields lost to tarmac.

Another large car park in the countryside

Ramsgate and Minster stations redundant, HS1 will stop at Margate and Parkway.

Coaches will circle Manston Airport day and night, if the airport expands

Constant pressure for new residential development around the new station

Cliffsend to Minster will become one sprawling suburb by 2050.

Wrong Time.

In these current austere economic times, to spend £10.5 million on another “status” white elephant is foolhardy, just think how far £10.5 million pounds would go to the regeneration of Thanet, if targeted at the existing infrastructure and amenities.

This reminds me of a true story from when my wife was a teacher. The school where she taught received a designated grant to build a new cycle path to the school, although only a few pupils cycled to school. The grant was received and the path constructed, but there was NO money available in the school to replace 20 year old text books, which the children used for their learning.   Fund allocation gone mad!

Let’s have some “joined up thinking”. on this project, the existing Ramsgate swimming pool is being made redundant and the fear is that it will be replaced by housing development, so spend less than £10 million on a superb new sports facility on the site, which can have an integral car park used for sporting events at weekends and a commuter car park during the week, which is just alongside Ramsgate station and parking income can pay for the sports ground upkeep.

Fiddle -er on the roof ?

Porta-cabins  falling from Jumbos over Ramsgate? 

No!  Just your average dormer window extension, in Thanet.

One coming to your street soon?